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Friday, July 9, 2010

Follow Friday: Personal Past Meditations – A Genealogical Blog

One of the posts I’d like to feature this week happens to have appeared on the blog that I am featuring this week, Personal Past Meditations – a Genealogical Blog, by Daniel Hubbard, so I’ll start with that post: “Independence Data.” (Many of the post titles on Hubbard’s blog involve some sort of play on, or slight distortion of a familiar term or phrase, and this one is no exception.) This is a subject that we genealogists – who in an ideal world make supporting evidence a major focus of our research – should pay very close attention to. I know that I have made the mistake/oversight addressed here, and I imagine quite a few others have as well. While I try not to steal too much of other bloggers’ thunder by quoting too much from their posts, I’ll have to say that there is a lot of quotable material here. However, let me provide just two key statements: “As soon as one bit of information is derived from another they are not independent” and “Mistakes often gain the power to convince by being repeated.” Hubbard uses the 1900 census to illustrate his point.

Much of what genealogists and family historians seek in their research is context and perspective, and this is precisely what is explored in depth at Personal Past Meditations. Moreover, the “perspective” Hubbard provides is often slightly skewed, compelling us to take a fresh look at what we are doing. It is both easy and difficult to name favorite posts – just take any at random, but then too many good ones are left out; however, a couple of recent “super-favorites” are “A Genealogist in Mathmagic Land” (Part 1 and Part 2) and “A Brief History of Oops.”

At GeneaBloggers, Thomas MacEntee has introduced the “What I Do” meme (what technology we use for our profession and/or hobbies and how we use it) with a genealogy twist and it is making the rounds. (Too embarrassing for this blogger to show how “un-with-it” she is. But I’m working on it – I’m taking notes from other bloggers’ posts, especially those who use Macs.)

Greta,Thanks for the wonderful review! And not just all the positive things- when I read "slightly skewed, compelling us to take a fresh look at what we are doing," it gave me a wonderful "Yes, that's it!" feeling. -Dan

Dan - So happy to write this review. Your blog has made me take a fresh and different look at my own research a number of times and I never take some of the unusual information or coincidences for granted again. Thanks for consistently providing such fascinating reading!

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About Me

After spending my formative years paying no heed to all the family stories, I got hooked on genealogy later in life and am now trying to catch up. My husband and I had long ago developed an interest in graveyards and have enjoyed visiting them while on vacation. I have started two Graveyard Rabbit blogs as a way, in addition to my participation in Findagrave, to help make information to other people who are researching their family history.
If you would like to get in touch with me, simply click on the link below entitled "View My Complete Profile"; this will take you to my Profile page, where you can click on the "Email" link under Contact (right below my profile picture, aka my cat R.B. trying to catch a balloon).